Soon after Pope Francis hits town Thursday, much of New York will come to a standstill. With many streets closed, deliveries postponed and traffic more congested than ever, New Yorkers will need a stiff upper lip, and maybe a stiff drink, to carry on.

Here’s the good news: Gotham will be beautiful. Like magic, the trashy vagrant camps and panhandling beggars probably will disappear.

No matter where the pontiff goes, from East Harlem to Ground Zero, from Madison Square Garden to the United Nations and through Central Park, he’s not likely to see a hooker, a disheveled bum, a pothole or a scrap of litter as the city pulls out the stops to put its best face forward.

There is more than a little irony in making Gotham sparkle for the pope of the poor, but it would show two things. First, that Mayor Bill de Blasio recognizes that too much of the city is a God-ugly mess these days. Second, that he’s capable of doing something about it when he wants to.

If only he had the same respect for taxpaying New Yorkers. Maybe we can get him to pretend that every day is pope day.

The decline in the city’s quality of life is growing more pronounced. Crime is spiking often enough to be more than a fluke — witness the eight murders over just two days — and more ordinary forms of disorder are consistently visible. It’s beyond dispute that the city is abdicating its responsibility to act.

The results are everywhere, with the explosion of vagrants, many of them aggressive, topping the list of public-disorder problems. After initially denying there was an increase, de Blasio finally admitted it was true.

But, the pope’s visit notwithstanding, there is no sign the mayor intends to do anything about it. In fact, to judge from his recent comments, he’s decided there isn’t much he can do.

“Let’s look at this vise closing on a massive scale. We’ve never seen anything like it,” he told an interviewer. “There’s never been a moment in our history where the cost of housing has gotten so far out of reach and the real incomes people have can’t keep up.”

He called the problem “structural,” which harkens back to the discredited liberal excuse that the city is ungovernable. Translation: Don’t blame me. Blame Washington, blame Albany, blame the rich.

Ah, yes, inequality — for him, all roads lead there. When you’re a hammer, the whole world is a nail.

Naturally, the mayor couched his surrender in terms of the need for more government spending. “The answer is to build a lot more housing,” he insisted.

Of course, building housing for all the homeless will take years, maybe decades, and in the short run, everything will get worse. In fact, even in the long run, everything might get worse because lots of people would like to have new housing, especially if it’s free.

Already, the city is inviting people into the bursting shelter system by giving them a preference for vacant apartments in some housing projects. The mayor put homeless advocates in charge of the program, told them to open the shelter doors wider and, presto — he’s getting more homeless. Mission accomplished.

And now, swamped by the number of people who accepted his invitation and suffering an erosion of public support, he’s offering a do-nothing policy masquerading as a long-term solution.

It’s not a solution. It’s a political excuse for inaction.

It’s also a formula for decline that will make the whole city worse. Everybody will take a hit, but the poor will get poorer much faster than the rich will get less rich.

The middle class will shrink because its members will foot the bill for the growing dependent class. Hiking taxes will raise the cost of living, making the city less affordable for more people.

That’s the dreary future of de Blasio’s New York, and it’s taking shape day by day. The fight for table scraps is intensifying as the grievance industry works at warp speed.

The cops are handcuffed and the bad guys are emboldened.

And the mayor says none of it is his fault.

‘Czar’-crossed

Headline: “Obama’s Islamic State War Czar Stepping Down.”

Who knew he had one? It certainly couldn’t be a full-time job, given how little we’ve done to destroy the most ruthless enemy on Earth.

No respect for the old faithful

Reader Vinny Mooney has a beef with the pope’s schedule.

“Immigrants are being highlighted and prisoners are making a special altar,” he writes.

“How about the people who pony up each week and lead during special fundraising drives?

“As always, this largely white middle class is taken for granted. For us, it continues to be pray, pay and obey. No special arrangements for this group.”

His answer was a self-inflicted wound — he should have sensed the trap and sidestepped it. But the media reaction also proved another point. No sooner had Carson spoken than virtually all other Republican candidates were asked to react to his comment.

Fair enough, but here’s the rub: The same rules don’t apply to Democrats.

Consider that Hillary Clinton’s email scandal is the subject of an FBI investigation, a congressional probe and two significant lawsuits. One of her aides is taking the Fifth Amendment rather than tell Congress everything he knows about classified information and the private server she used.

So why doesn’t the media demand that Bernie Sanders, Martin O’Malley and Jim Webb either defend or criticize Clinton’s conduct? Why are her party rivals not burdened with her behavior and forced to declare their opinions in the same way all Republican candidates must answer for Carson’s far lesser sin?

Easy answer — media bias and a double standard. There’s nothing new in that, but moments like this are telling. They are a reminder, if any were needed, that the leftward tilt of the mainstream media still has enough power to set the agenda, or silence it.

The feverish focus on Carson, and the lack of interest in how her opponents see Clinton’s scandals, have an impact. Even voters who know better often are influenced by the steady drumbeat of biased journalists.

There is no cure — only awareness. Be smart and remember what matters.